Temperatures in Salt Lake City hit 100ºF on Saturday (they've hit ~103 since), so this past weekend was another one to recreate at altitude. The dogs and I headed for Pittsburgh Lake in American Fork Canyon on Saturday with AmyZ.
Temperatures even at 9,500 feet were supposed to reach the mid-80s, so we planned on an early start. Those plans, however, were derailed by a truck and trailer hauling around 20 porta-johns that slipped over the edge of Forest Service Road 085 in American Fork Canyon a few miles west of Tibble Fork, blocking all travelers other than those on dirt bikes. It would reportedly be hours until a tow truck would arrive to pull the trailer back onto the road and clean up the mess. We doubled back and followed a circuitous route on mostly dirt roads to reach the trailhead through the back door -- up over the Alpine Loop, down to Crystal Springs and up to Wasatch Mountain State Park. All told, it was about a 90-minute detour even though I hit those dirt roads like a rally car driver. We thus didn't arrive at the trailhead parking in Mineral Basin until 1:15 p.m. -- the prime hour for a blazing sun.
The trail to Pittsburgh Lake follows an old, overgrown wagon road used by horses/mules to haul ore down from the silver and gold mines on the slopes surrounding the lake. It begins near the bottom of Mineral Basin, well below Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort's terrain and rises around 1,500 vertical feet of elevation gain over a mile and a half to the lake at 9,419 feet, beneath the spires of the "backside" of Devil's Castle behind Alta Ski Area.
Those stats, however, don't tell the full story. For the first quarter mile or so, the trail meanders rather gently uphill through a stand of aspens. After that, however, it hangs a hard right at some mine ruins and turns into an absolute sonofabitch, rising about 1,000 vertical feet in the next three-quarters of a mile. If that's not enough, to make it extra fluffy those God-awfully steep switchbacks are entirely strewn with loose rubble. Under a relentless sun, it was slow going for humans and dogs alike.
The rewards, however, are huge. The lake is spectacular. The pinnacle of the mining ruins that are visible the entire way is an abandoned miner's cabin on the south shore of the lake. And the dogs got to swim. If anyone brings a rod and reel along, the trout were leaping from the water incessantly.
As if to understand our misery going up, clouds developed to shield us from another solar beat-down for nearly our entire route back to the truck. With the shaded views less enticing than they had been during our ascent in the sunshine, I trained my camera lens instead on the season's nascent wildflowers.
And thank God those honey buckets were all cleaned up by the time we headed for home.
If anyone can identify any of these wildflowers, please speak up!
Temperatures even at 9,500 feet were supposed to reach the mid-80s, so we planned on an early start. Those plans, however, were derailed by a truck and trailer hauling around 20 porta-johns that slipped over the edge of Forest Service Road 085 in American Fork Canyon a few miles west of Tibble Fork, blocking all travelers other than those on dirt bikes. It would reportedly be hours until a tow truck would arrive to pull the trailer back onto the road and clean up the mess. We doubled back and followed a circuitous route on mostly dirt roads to reach the trailhead through the back door -- up over the Alpine Loop, down to Crystal Springs and up to Wasatch Mountain State Park. All told, it was about a 90-minute detour even though I hit those dirt roads like a rally car driver. We thus didn't arrive at the trailhead parking in Mineral Basin until 1:15 p.m. -- the prime hour for a blazing sun.
The trail to Pittsburgh Lake follows an old, overgrown wagon road used by horses/mules to haul ore down from the silver and gold mines on the slopes surrounding the lake. It begins near the bottom of Mineral Basin, well below Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort's terrain and rises around 1,500 vertical feet of elevation gain over a mile and a half to the lake at 9,419 feet, beneath the spires of the "backside" of Devil's Castle behind Alta Ski Area.
Those stats, however, don't tell the full story. For the first quarter mile or so, the trail meanders rather gently uphill through a stand of aspens. After that, however, it hangs a hard right at some mine ruins and turns into an absolute sonofabitch, rising about 1,000 vertical feet in the next three-quarters of a mile. If that's not enough, to make it extra fluffy those God-awfully steep switchbacks are entirely strewn with loose rubble. Under a relentless sun, it was slow going for humans and dogs alike.
The rewards, however, are huge. The lake is spectacular. The pinnacle of the mining ruins that are visible the entire way is an abandoned miner's cabin on the south shore of the lake. And the dogs got to swim. If anyone brings a rod and reel along, the trout were leaping from the water incessantly.
As if to understand our misery going up, clouds developed to shield us from another solar beat-down for nearly our entire route back to the truck. With the shaded views less enticing than they had been during our ascent in the sunshine, I trained my camera lens instead on the season's nascent wildflowers.
And thank God those honey buckets were all cleaned up by the time we headed for home.
If anyone can identify any of these wildflowers, please speak up!
